Sri Lanka win easy, but Dilshan injured

Upul Tharanga and Dilshan got runs with ease up front, but Bangladesh stuck pretty quickly in the 4th over when Upul Tharanga lost concentration by chasing a Rubel Hossain delivery outside his off stump to give a regulation catch to keeper Musfiqur Rahim with Sri Lanka on 35. Tharanga walked back a dejected man, out for 14, when he could have made a big hundred on a placid pitch.

Dilshan and Sangakkara were a class of their own. The left hand right hand combination, combined with their skill level played some classy strokes and put Bangladesh bowling to the sword. The pair carted a hapless home team attack to all parts of the park.

Sangakkara was exquisite with his stroke play square on the off side. Sri Lankan skipper showed in what true form he is in, he dominated the Bangladesh attack, with Dilshan punching down the ground and putting away the loose deliveries with sheer timing and power.

Sangakkara reached his fifty second half century in forty nine four balls. Dilshan got to his half ton in 63 balls and the pair put on 148 runs for the 2nd wicket. Sangakkara was out caught behind by wicket keeper Musfiqur Rahim off Shaful Islam who undid him with a slower delivery, that got the outside edge and was unlucky miss out on a hundred but had to be content with 74 scored off 73 balls with ten glorious boundaries.

Sri Lanka on 183 for 2 at this staged looked very much on target with almost 17 overs in the bank. Dilshan trying to take an impossible second run in the run of play did some damage to his hamstring and was aided with a runner.

The question doing the rounds though is will Dilshan be fit for tomorrow game against India? Samaraweera who came in at the fall of Sangakkaras’ wicket looked very rusty. Samaraweera threw caution to the wind and stuck it out in the middle and that certainly helped his and Sri Lanka’s cause.

Dilshan got to his sixth one day hundred in 120 balls with 12 hits to the ropes. Dilshan departed caught by Naheem at short mid wicket off the bowling of Mahamadulla for 104, with Sri Lanka on course with the visitors well on top, 242 for 3 wickets.

Sri Lanka got to their target with 5 overs to spare with a comprehensive win by 7 wickets. Samaraweera proved his critics wrong by being unbeaten on 41 off 54 balls with five boundaries.

Main Score card

Bangladesh 261 for 7 wickets

Sri Lanka 263 for 3 wickets in 44.5 overs

TM Dilshan 104

Kumar Sangakkara 74

Thilan Samaraweera 41 not out

Bowling

Shaful Islam 1 for 39 in 5 overs

Rubel Hossain 1 for 47 in 6 overs

1st Session

Sri Lanka with a three pronged seam attack invited host Bangladesh to take first lease of the pitch at Sherre Bangla stadium this afternoon. Kulasekera went for 9 runs in his first over, but, came back strongly to contain the openers with good length deliveries. The Bangladesh openers batted cautiously but Kulasekera stuck when he had young Imrul Kayes caught by Samaraweera at deep square leg of a short pith delivery for 23 with with Bangladesh on 65.

Tamim Iqbal, batting on 40, made a mess of himself by going down the pitch to a tossed up delivery from part time bowler Dilshan only succeeding in giving catching practice to Suranga Lakmal at mid off with the score on 71.

Sri Lanka stuck again, and this was a brilliant piece of work by Samaraweera who held onto a blinder in the slip cordon to dismiss Raqibul Hassan for a golden duck with Bangladesh losing their 3rd wicket on the same score of 71, giving Lakmal his first wicket.

Two experience campaigners Namely Mohamed Ashraful and skipper Shakib al Hassan had the responsibility of resurrecting the innings as the home team after a bright start lost 3 wickets during the run of play for just 6 runs.

Lakmal got his second scalp when he had the Bangladesh skipper caught at third man by Welegedera for 1 run and the home team slumped to 74 for 4 wickets. The Bangladeshi batsman, were a bit tentative against the extra pace of Suranga Lakmal who peppered young Musfiqur Rahim with well directed short deliveries.

Musfiqur Rahim and Mohamed Ashraful used their experience by playing sensible cricket. They settled down to play the percentage game by rotating the strike and putting away the loose deliveries to the boundary.

Sangakkara introduced spin, Suraj Randive with his high arm action bowled tidily, while Kandamby with his wrist spin got the ball to leave both right handers consistently. The two experienced pair put on 58 runs for the 5th wicket. Musfiqur Rahim paid the penalty for pre meditating a slog sweep off a Randiv full toss delivery and was ruled Lbw, after contributing a well made 35 with Bangladesh on 132.

Mahmudullah joined Ashraful and the pair found run making difficult against some tidy bowling by the visitors. Ashraful took the responsibility and stayed in the middle with purpose. Mahhmudulla gave the former skipper good support by nudging the ball into gaps and most importantly, not throwing away his wicket. The Bangladeshis were starved of boundaries, but that changed when Suranga Lakmal who bowled very well went for 15 runs in the 44th over.

Mahamudullah and Ashraful put on a valuable partnership of 95 runs for the 6th wicket.Mahamadulla was adjudicated LBW when he tried to slog sweep Randive and completely missed the line of the delivery. The young right hander did his job by scoring 45 runs with Bangladesh recovering from 74 for 4 to 227 for 6.

Ashraful who made 75 off 90 balls was run out but he set up the home team’s recovery. Bangladesh ended the Innings on a high when the wrath of Naseem Islam was evident, plundering 20 runs in the final over bowled by Suranga Lakmal.

Bangladesh from a hopeless situation accumulated 260 for the loss of 7 wickets in their allotted 50 overs.

Suranga Lakmal is a wicket taker. He is inexperienced to bowl at the death. Yet he will take wickets. Ravi Shastri said that he was the only one looking like taking a wicket at any time given the ball.